Hi guys, welcome back to another prototyping session with Ravi. In this blog, we’ll discuss my process of using the waterjet cutter and making two diamond decorations.

To first create the file necessary for the waterjet, I used the template in Canvas. I found two nouns on the noun project – a pumpkin and a croissant – to be my negative cut in the diamonds. After appropriately scaling my designs in each diamond, I imported the .ai file into LAYOUT software. I deleted the outer borders (definitely didn’t want these to be cut) from the .ai file and rotated both pieces to fit better on the aluminum sheet I was cutting on. After cleaning entities, I used an advanced path instead of auto path to better visualize where I could position my path home to save the most space. A lot of metal sheets were heavily used and the space wasn’t used well (in my opinion), so I had to get creative with positioning. I could’ve printed both diamonds separately, but I love a fun challenge. Here’s a picture of my path on diamonds.

After importing it into MAKE software, I set the path home to the extreme bottom right and performed a dry run to check there were no other cuts in the metal that interfered with my path. After confirming it was all good, I performed the cut operation. During this process, the software crashed twice. Fortunately, MAKE remembered where my path home was so I was able to advance to where I wanted to cut and resume operations. On the second crash, MAKE reset my path home in the middle of my cut so instead of cutting another diamond, I programmed a single cut line to finish the rest of my diamond. Luckily, the software crashed on the horizontal edge of my diamond and not my design.

After getting two pretty well-cut parts, I filed and sandblasted. Here are images from each process.

Lastly, I spray painted. For one side of each part, I used painter’s tape and different colors to spray on my diamonds. After drying for 30-min, I applied new painter’s tape to painted areas and sprayed on unpainted areas.

On the back, I tried an enamel clear spray which I thought was kind of interesting the way it looked. Overall, I was super happy with the way the diamonds came out. I did want to powder coat but it’s like a 3-man operation and I didn’t feel like operating it alone. It’s a very fun machine – I wonder how thick metal it can cut.

Here’s my final cost matrix.

Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
1/32” 12”x12” aluminum sheet	$12	home depot	~15 in2	$1.25
operator	$15	me, the operator	3 hours	$45
overhead (running protomax water jet) spray paint – a little painter’s tape				$35
			TOTAL:	~$81.25